Fair Student Day means tighter security

TAMPA (970 WFLA) -- Today is student day at the Florida State Fair, which means Hillsborough sheriff's deputies will be keeping an eye on things. 

Deputies say proactive policing brought a 40 percent overall reduction in warnings and arrests last year. 

Sheriff's office spokesman Danny Alvarez says there will be 200 off duty deputies, school resource officers and volunteers patrolling the fairgrounds during student day. Anyone under 18 arriving after 6 p.m. won't be able to get into the fair without an adult escort. 

The fair ramped up security after 14 year old Andrew Joseph III was ejected during an incident in 2014... one of 100 teens who got thrown out... and died crossing Interstate 4 on foot. 

Someone put the teen's name up in lights on the U-S 301 overpass above the interstate Wednesday evening.


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